Google’s YouTube takes the crown as the most widely used internet platform by American teens today — while Facebook’s popularity in the demo has slumped dramatically in the last three years. That’s according to a new report on U.S. teenagers’ social-media use from the Pew Research Center, based on surveys conducted in the spring of 2018. Among the study’s other findings, the proportion of teens (ages 13-17) who say they are online “almost constantly” has nearly doubled since its 2014-15 study on the subject, to 45% on the most recent survey. That’s sure to fuel concerns that social media and smartphones are contributing to mental-health problems associated with heavy internet use — including forms of addiction. YouTube leads the pack of internet platforms for Gen Z. About 85% of kids 13 to 17 say they use the video service, followed by Instagram (72%), Snapchat (69%), Facebook (51%) and Twitter (32%).
